New Bus to MARC Station Could Launch Next Month

A new bus shuttling commuters from Piney Orchard to the Odenton MARC station could begin service by the second week of February, Anne Arundel County officials said.

Transportation planner Jon Mayer told members of the Piney Orchard Community Association that the county is finishing up final work on an agreement with Central Maryland Regional Transit to run the service.

Mayer said the county has a general plan for between 12 and 16 stops, including:

 -Waugh Chapel Road and Casuarina Way

-Stream Valley Drive, near Piney Orchard Parkway

-GORC Park

-Village Center parking lot

 The bus would start service at about 5:45 a.m. and run to 9 a.m., then pick up again at about 3 p.m. and run to 8 p.m. Mayer said it would take 25 minutes to run end-to-end and would allow riders to make most, but not all trains to Washington during morning rush hour.

 Residents and board members had some small concerns, including whether some out-of-area commuters would use up parking spaces at Village Center or elsewhere in the community and then take the bus. Mayer said that would likely only be a concern if parking at the MARC station were no longer free.

POCA board vice president Peg Waters asked whether the bus would pass by Piney Orchard Elementary as children were being dismissed from school. Mayer said that it’s a possibility, but that the bus would likely only pass once, and that crossing guards would be told of the bus’s schedule.

 Each bus is designed to hold 26 passengers, and some residents asked whether there would be plans to expand the number of buses and the route if demand exceeded capacity. Though the county has two buses, one would be set aside as backup. 

Mayer said the county could work with the operator to explore ways to add capacity, if needed.

“That’d be a nice problem to have,” he said.

 In the coming weeks, the county will be working to place signs at stops and iron out a more precise schedule for the bus.